Thousands of criminals are escaping halfway houses in New Jersey.  The places that they are escaping from are run by a company closely related to the governor of NJ, Chris Christie.  According to reports the state is not doing much to prevent these people from fleeing even though they are well aware that some commit more crimes while on the run, like a man that escaped and murdered his girlfriend shortly after. Hit the jump for details.

Steph Bassanini

Thousands of convicted criminals are escaping from New Jersey halfway houses run by a company closely supported by Gov Chris Christie — and the state doing little to force the firm to beef up security and stem the tide loose of fugitives.
Among the 5,100 prisoners who have fled custody since 2005 are two men who allegedly committed murder while on the run — including David Goodell, accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend to death in 2011 within hours of sneaking out of a facility in Newark.
Despite the criticism for Community Education Centers, which runs the lion’s share of private halfway houses in New Jersey, Gov Christie has continued to increase the company’s state contracts — which totaled $76 million in 2011 alone.

‘Places like this are to be celebrated,” he gushed during a 2010 speech at one of Community Education’s facilities.
‘A spotlight should be put on them as representing the very best of the human spirit,’ he said. ‘Because as you walk through here, as I’ve done many times, what you see right before your very eyes are miracles happening.’

A 10-month investigation by the New York Times has revealed a broken system in New Jersey that is placing ever-more dangerous offenders in minimum security halfway houses — and taking few steps to prevent them from running away.
Gov Christie has close ties to Community Education — his law firm lobbied for the company when he was in private practice, his former law partner is a top executive there, one of his close aides recently married the daughter of Community Education’s CEO and the company has donated more than $200,000 to the governor and other powerful supporters.
If Gov Christie runs for president in 2016 or 2020, which has been speculated, he could suffer the same attacks that destroyed the campaign of Massachusetts Gov Michael Dukakis in 1988.

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